Filthy Fun

Earlier this summer, a handful of generous motorists pulled over to pick up a mustachioed hitchhiker on the side of the freeway, only to discover he was, in fact, iconically weird director John Waters. Over eight days, the brain behind kitschy cult classics such as Hairspray and Pink Flamingos thumbed some 15 rides across the country to San Francisco. His drivers included cops, couples, and the indie band Here We Go Magic, and all will be chronicled in the upcoming book Carsick.
But it’s not the only personal, autobiographical work in Waters’s oeuvre. A few years ago, he wrote the one-man show This Filthy World, which debuted at New York’s Harry DeJour Playhouse. It was the first time Waters had so publicly reflected on his life in-depth. The show traced his upbringing in Baltimore to the present day, all through a lens of a lifelong sense of difference and a bit of disconnect from the mainstream world.
The show has rarely been performed since that original staging, so Saturday marks a true coup for the South Florida cultural scene. Waters arrives at the Parker Playhouse (707 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale) for an event dubbed An Evening With John Waters: A Filthy World. The event kicks off at 7 p.m. with introductory commentary by former New Times theater critic Brandon K. Thorp. A screening of Waters’s 1981 film Polyester, starring Divine, follows. But then, at 9 p.m., Waters performs This Filthy World in full, following it all up with a Q&A.
Sat., July 28, 7 p.m., 2012